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Show , 9 I Character of Cardinal &bbons. I Interesting Sketch of Life at Home Almost Unbroken Regularity of Habits I F7tfs 77ne to Write Books An Interesting Personage. The news from Rome, reported seem- fngly upon pood authority, that Pope Ij Leo XIII will create no more American H "Cardinals during- the life of the head ft 'f the Archdiocese of Baltimore makes Vjl . Cardinal Gibbons a still more inter- 't"V eslls Pe,'fionaPe than ever, before. His R eminence is, in rank, if not in juris- r diction, the highest dignitarv of the I : "atholie Church in the United States. I TJie apostolic delegate, Cardinal Mar- j, , tinelli. is. indeed, the representative of ' "V the Holy See here, and adjudicates il -ases that occur in all parts of the t land, but since his elevation to the scarlet his stay here is no longer fixed. I He will leave for Home, it is said, be- f fore Christmas. The stay of Cardinal I Cibbons, on the other hand, is fixed jj and permanent, and he is the adminis- ? trator of the primatial See of the Unit- i f-d States. The Baltimore Cardinal who in Baltimore does not know that slender ; ligure and the pallid and ascetic but f r kindly features, and biack eeclesias- " ; tical costume, and especially the little j I ukull-cap peeping from under the i American high hat? Every morning I between 11 and 12 o'clock and occa- f Finn;,ir a litt'e later that light and jf vir' figure, with the firm and rapid Mode, is seen to pass down North j Charles street, sometimes going no f 1 farther than Baltimore street, and then I homeward on the other side Prot- I estants and Catholics alike bow to the ! Cardinal, and he always returns these Ki salutations with a smile, .although he SJ loos not recognize one-tenth of the faces. Strangers regard him with j I curious and profound interest the j American Cardinal, of whom they have ' ? heard so much, whose name is con- -OL stantly in the papers and who is con- V," nected, in one way or another, with II almost everything of interest that goes I forward. I The Cardinal is now approaching 6S. I but to those who see much of him there S seems little changre in his appearance , Ifom what it was a decade of years j ' so. There have been but few I changes in his habits. He still walks j every day in the open air. but not so fr.r. In work he does not spare him- $ self and he has .the same endurance. He is as abstemious as ever, and as I Thin, although when he recently re- I : turned from Eurone he seemed to' have gained flesh. His active, energetic I temperament, however, forbids that he j fhould ever become even moderatelv I plump, live as Jong as he may. The j almost perfect health that he enjovs I Is due chiefly, no doubt, to this coii- ftant exercise, the love of fresh air V " and almost unbroken regularitv, of habits. I i The Cardinal, like all Catholic ec- ' j Hesiastics. rises very early, and his i daily Mass is said usually at 7 o'clock the Mass of a Cardinal is slightly dif- T ferent in some of the ceremonies from , tnt of the ordinary priest. After his f thanksgiving he has breakfast. ; glances at the newspapers and. with ? his secretary, attends to his corre- -1 ."-pondence, which is very large.' He i rarely sees anyone, except bv appoint ment, before 10 o"clock. and then there j are many callet s people upon business j of almost every imaginable sort. Many ! strangers parsing through the city, no't only frmn all parts of the United I i states, l)ut from other countries, come I v nnd l'ay their respects. These include ; Protestants as well as Catholics members also of the Protestant clergy authors, )(oliticians, educators, doc-j doc-j tors and even actors and actresses. A . few weeks ago a little b.iy who was l,,a"inr with a popular star in one of the theatres went to see the Cardinal and recited his whole part before him, much to the amusement of his eminence. emi-nence. As soon as there is a lull in the visits j the cardinal goes out for a short walk. D'nner takes place at 1. sometimes j with a guest, such as a visiting arch- M'shnp or other dignitary: then rest f 1111 4: then more visitors, another walk, J tea and a quiet evening over books, j Ten o'clock is the regular hour for re- lirement a rule almost never broken. I This routine is changed only when the ! cardinal is away or when there an; ecclesiastical functions. His recreation at home is in reading. There is not much time during the day for books: but he is not without leisure, in the evenings, especially during the winter; and then it is that he turns over the pages of favorite writers. He likes the old standard authors best. Naturally, he makes no attempt to keep pace with the tremendous output from the publishing pub-lishing houses in these days. Current fiction he scarcely touches he could net He reads the reviews and other publications, however, and keeps himself him-self well informed as to what is going on in politics, literature, science and daily history. Of the drama he knows not much, as he has never witnessed a performance by professional actors; but it is an illustration of his kindness f heart in the early summer he attends at-tends a multitude of school commencement commence-ment and sits through the amateur p'ays given by the pupils, although some of these must he tedious enough. v. . In Rome the cardinals live in state, and each possesses his carriage and rid's out in somewhat imposing array. Cardinal Gibbons also has his equipage equip-age and coachman, but is rarely seen behind horses, and very few are aware th-t he has a. eo?t of arms. The only mark of his rank when he is out of doors is the little skull cap. already a'ljd"d to. worn within his hat, and the red scarf. At home he changes his costume according ac-cording to the ecclesiastical season; in Lent and at Advent the red cassock giving way to one of purple. The pectoral pec-toral cross he constantly wears, and also upon one of his lingers a sapphire ring. For Catholics it is etiquette to krs this ring as a sign of spiritual al-1-cianoe to the far off head of the Church in Rome, and even some members mem-bers of the High Church branch perform per-form this obeisance. They recognize th s-premacy of Peter, although not of his jurirdiction. Devout Catholics, on leaving the cardinal, drop on one knee to receive his blessing. The household in the archiepiscopal residence is not a large one. Besides his eminence, there are Bishop Curtis and three priests. There is an colored man, who acts as butler, one or two servants below stairs, and a page at the door. Almost perfect stillness prevails, although all through the. day persons are coming and going. There ate few formalities. A card sent, to his eminence will usually cause him to descend, but if well acquainted with the caller for example, a newspaper man the cardinal will invite him to come up. Ascending the stairs, in the morning particularly, one often finds his eminence walking in the corridor with a book in his hand going occasionally occa-sionally to the w indow, where he stands in meditation. He listens affably and attentively to the business proposed, and answers directly and to the point; there is no needless expenditure of words. The cardinal has had a large experience with newspaper men. and understands what is news and the value of it perfectly: also when to keep news and when to allow it to go out. To those writers who treat him well and respect his confidence he is cordial i and often frank: but woe to the re- porter or correspondent who violates a pledge of discretion! By some of the New York papers the cardinal, on more than one occasion, has been shabbily used. False interviews have been by no means uncommon in his life, on this side of the water as well as on the other, and he has been sometimes made to say absurd and outrageous things. "While he was away last summer the cable brought many reports of interviews inter-views that were wholly imaginative. A particularly annoying invention of some of the yellow journals in this country has been to publish certain begus "sentiments" at Easter or Christmas Christ-mas time, ascribed to the cardinal usually mawkish and in the worst possible pos-sible taste a species of utterances wholly foreign to his plain, practical character. Necessarily, from his position he must be careful in his speech, both as regards re-gards the pomulgation of news and the expression of opinion. Great interests are confided to his discretion, and hjs public utterances are closely scanned, analyzed and commented upon. A single sin-gle sermon of 'his has set the whole country talking. When no harm can follow, he will converse pleasantly and freely enough. . 4 , The cardinal, in addition to all his other labors, finds time to write books, and some of his works have had an extraordinary circulation. Probably half a million copies of "The Faith of Our Fathers" have been sold, and the work has been translated into many languages. He produces a book with great care, employing himself upon it at odd moments. He is a good impromptu im-promptu speaker, but usually writes out his sermons in- advance, and his memory is so retentive, even at his present age. that after reading over the manuscript once, or twice he has it In his mind perfectly. His delivery-is delivery-is easy and cleJiberate and his voice penetrating, although not as strong as it formerly was. He has a good deal of humor, and his remarks at commencements com-mencements are sometimes very amusing. amus-ing. The cardinal, writes rapidly and In a rather small, graceful, flowing hand. A sermon delivered by him a few years ago is written upon a sheet or two of note paper, without a break or correction, correc-tion, just as it came from his mind: and it was delivered almost word for word as written. Not a few letters that he receives in his daily correspondence correspon-dence are answered by himself, not by his secretary letters from utter, strangers, stran-gers, and those from persons inquiring upon some point of Catholic faith-seekers faith-seekers of knowledge outside the fold-especially fold-especially interest him. Non-Catholic? are always sure of extreme courtesy in all their relations with him. ? ? The position lje holds is one of great dignity, but there is the exaction of an enormous amount of hard work, which begins, as has been indicated in this article, soon after dawn and con tinues all day and until the hour of sleep. An outline of the Cardinal's day has been sketched, but this is only in its main features.. Nothing has been said of the complex business of administration: ad-ministration: of the Various missions and objects of the incessant stream of callers; of the letters answered; of the infinite details attached to the labors la-bors of an Archbishop and Cardinal. There is assistance, but there must always al-ways be the influence of the central and supervising brain. The secret in the accomplishment of so much is the systematic method pursued. Said one of the fathers of the Cathedral household: house-hold: "The Cardinal is one of the most remarkable men in the world for regularity reg-ularity of habit. The clock itself Is scarcely more punctual. He is wonderful won-derful in every way, and the longer one lives with him the more deeply is this fact impressed. Usually a near view of a great man is disillusionizing. The fact is precisely the reverse in the case of Cardinal Gibbons. You must live close to him to realize how great a man he is." 4 Seven talents are not so good an en-downment en-downment "as tac t. The Cardinal possesses pos-sesses this quality in a supreme degree, de-gree, and it has often been remarked of him that in his speeches on public occasions he may always be counted upon to say precisely the right thing. He has figured more than once at delicate deli-cate functions, when an indiscreet word might have done Irreparable mischief, mis-chief, and there was something to ad-i ad-i mire in the skill, wisdom and adroitness adroit-ness which he exercised in acquitting his hands of the responsibility involved without offense to others or compromise compro-mise to himself. With this discretion goes also much simplicity of character, charac-ter, a dislike of parade or show, gentle manners, kindness of heart and warmth of feeling. He is amiable, yet also strong and firm. He makes up his mind with care, and is very decided when a conclusion has been reached. He is supremely practical and sensi- -ble. and while he has given proof of his ability in many directions, there is perhaps per-haps no better one than is exhibited in his administration of the prosperous and peaceful Baltimore archdiocese. W. E. McCann in Baltimore News. 1 M |